Albanian and foreign tourists who visit Gjirokastër have a high interest in getting to know folk tradition and ethnography. This can be seen in the high number of visitors to the city’s ethnographic museum

The values ​​of popular tradition, ethnography and folklore are becoming strong points for attracting mostly foreign tourists to Gjirokastër. In the premises of the Ethnographic Museum in this city, visitors receive extensive information about the elements of the Albanian folk tradition.

“There is a very good feedback in terms of the part of the material heritage, i.e. folk costumes from all areas of the country, but we do not forget to mention the main one which is the material cultural heritage, the dance and folklore music of Gjirokastër. We have seen an increase in visitation, especially during the week of the folklore festival of Gjirokastër, especially in addition to the number of visits, we have seen the interest that our visitors have had in the part of the intangible heritage.” – said Iris Shane Cicerone

“We have heard, I have seen a lot on the Internet, now in the old market there we have seen some, we have taken some photos with the folk costumes and we decided to come to the Ethnographic Museum to see and see the beauty of the Albanian tradition.” – said the tourist from Kosovo.

“It is very interesting and gives you a good feeling of these elements of Albanian culture and it was very special for us. We come from Belgium and it’s the first time we’ve been here, it was a good opportunity for us, it’s a special, original museum so we have the best words to say,” underlined the tourist from Belgium.

In the characteristic Bazaar of Gjirokastër, several craft centers of traditional works or folk clothing are already active, which served as interesting stops for tourist groups.

“The Germans, the French, the Polish Americans are all very interested, they sit here and learn something from this work, they are very interested, they are very satisfied with this work” – said Desdemona Paskali, artisan of traditional works.

During the 7 months of this year, the stone city has been visited by about 90 thousand tourists.